July.1.2023
Welcome back again to my blog, and I am excited to share updates from our second week in Dar!
Bright and early on Monday morning, we visited the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) and met various members of the NEST360 and IHI team. It was such a pleasure to meet everyone and learn about their unique contributions to healthcare in Tanzania; QI specialists, statisticians, clinicians, and qualitative method masters were all present in the office, and they detailed the amazing work that they did at NEST.
Photo: With the amazing NEST360 team!!
Photo: My meal at the IHI canteen – it was delicious, and incredibly filling!
After introductions, we discussed our respective projects and outlined our immediate next steps. On the forefront was creating an interview guide, which will direct my upcoming interviews. Additionally, I am working on the extraction of data relevant to my project as well. We also scheduled a visit at a nearby hospital, so we could learn more about the neonatal unit there.
Thus, on Tuesday, we left for Mwananyamala Regional Referral Hospital, where we met up with Dr. Robert Tillya, a clinician from IHI and NEST360 (whom we had also been introduced to the day before). One of the aspects in particular that I internally took notes on was the infrastructure and overall space layout of the hospital. As this is also one of the hospitals that I will be conducting interviews at, I wanted to gain some perspective into the spatial advantages and limits of the current layout. Our conversations with the doctor-in-charge were incredibly insightful into this matter, and others as well, including challenges like hypothermia. One challenge the doctor noted was the lack of space for mothers to stay with their babies; they had to stay one floor up, due to limited space on the neonatal ward. Afterwards, we had the chance to speak with the biomedical technician on site, and learned about some of the issues causing a build up of unusable equipment in facilities, as well as many of the improvements taking place in the facility.
The visit to the neonatal unit was very informative, and it was interesting to expand on the literature that I had read online through an in-person example. It was also a great primer to a lot of the work that we will be doing this summer, and it helped with the development of questions for my interview guide. After the visit on Tuesday, we had the next few days to work on our project. As my first interview was coming up quickly, being scheduled for the following Monday (July 3), I focused on creating the interview guide and seeking feedback from the NEST360 team, as well as data extraction.
Among all of the new learning and new connections this week, Annika, Ojas, and I have still had tons of time to explore Dar! Our residence is located just a few steps away from tons of bustling cafes and restaurants, and we have had a blast exploring all that Dar has to offer. One of my favorite activities is to spot small differences from the overall culture in the U.S. versus in Tanzania, which I believe definitely shines through in restaurant life. In Dar, everything feels much slower-paced and calm; for example, the waiters won’t bring you the bill until you explicitly ask for it, and you can spend hours upon hours just chatting at your table after you finish eating. I’m not sure yet which “system” I prefer, but it’s definitely been fun pointing out small transitions in culture that we’ve noticed during our time here!
Photo: View inside Wild Flour Cafe, a greenhouse-style place to sit and work while enjoying some delicious coffee!
Next Monday, July 3, I will start conducting interviews at Temeke, one of the regional hospitals in Dar. Our time in Dar has moved incredibly fast so far, and I have truly enjoyed it and am excited for the next several weeks that are to come!
Shrutika